Danijel Ljuboja, (Serbian Cyrillic: Данијел Љубоја) (born September 4, 1978 in Vinkovci) is a Serbian football forward who plays for Grenoble Foot 38, and is possibly best known for his mohawk inspired hairstyle.

[edit] Career

Ljuboja was born in Vinkovci, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia, where he played in the youth teams of NK Dinamo Vinkovci, NK Osijek and in FK Crvena zvezda in Belgrade. He moved to France where his professional career started with Sochaux in the 1998/99 season. In his two year stint with the team, he played 62 games scoring 20 goals. Following his stay with Sochaux, Ljuboja moved to Strasbourg in the 2000/01 season where Danijel made 123 league appearances scoring 34 goals, and two appearances in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup Competition scoring twice. During the 2003/04 January transfer window Ljuboja moved from Strasbourg to PSG, where he scored 7 times in 42 league appearances and played 5 games with the team in the 2004-05 Champions League. In 2005, he transferred to German club side Stuttgart, at first on loan, forming a striking partnership with Jon Dahl Tomasson.

He was contracted in April 2006 (through 2009), but by that his income, that was still paid half by PSG, was lowered significantly. Although he had a valid contract, he demanded from Stuttgart the same wages he got before from PSG. Stuttgart in consequence told him to look out for a new club in the summer of 2006 and let him train with their reserve team that plays in the 3rd German league.

In August 2006, Ljuboja was transferred on loan to Champions League participant Hamburger SV for one year with the option to buy the player afterwards. At Hamburger SV he was also demoted to the reserves team, because he didn't participate in team briefings. Hamburger SV did not exploit their option to buy him, so he went back to VfB Stuttgart at the end of the season. VfB Stuttgart was looking to offload him to another club. He was part of the reserve team of VfB Stuttgart in the Regionalliga.

In January 2008, Ljuboja was loaned out to VfL Wolfsburg, until the end of the season^[1]. Wolfsburg didn't use the option to sign the forward permanently.

In July 2008 he was pardoned and returned to the first team of VfB Stuttgart, he was again downgraded to the reserve team VfB Stuttgart II on 5 February 2009 until the end of his contract in June 2009^[2]. After four years in Germany turned on 23 July 2009 back to France and signed for Grenoble Foot 38^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• FootballDatabase provides Danijel Ljuboja's profile and stats
• Kicker Profile
• Footballdatabase.com Stats
• Danijel Ljuboja French league stats at lfp.fr (French)

v • d • e Serbia and Montenegro squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Jevrić • 2 Ergić • 3 Dragutinović • 4 Duljaj • 5 Vidić • 6 Gavrančić • 7 Koroman • 8 Kežman • 9 Milošević • 10 Stanković • 11 P. Đorđević • 12 Kovačević • 13 Basta • 14 N. Đorđević • 15 Dudić • 16 D. Petković • 17 Nađ • 18 Vukić • 19 Žigić • 20 Krstajić • 21 Ljuboja • 22 Ilić • 23 Stojković • Coach: I. Petković